Graduate employment suffered the biggest drop this year since the 2008 financial crash as employers Reduce hiring workers to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic.

A recent survey by the Institute of Student Employers (ISE) found that the number of graduate jobs is down 12% and that the majority of employers expect a further decline next year.

Employers in the retail and FMCG sectors made the largest cuts, cutting 45% of graduate jobs because the first coronavirus shutdown affected business income and It clouded the employment prospects.

The ISE, which polls top employers, said the poor image also affected the number of graduate training offered and was a tough time for many of Britain’s best-qualified youth.

Employers reported a 29% decrease in internships and a 25% decrease in hires in 2019-20 with further declines expected next year.

Stephen Isherwood, CEO of ISEDrop in, he said Graduate jobsDespite falling short of the recession of 2009 when employers cut 25% of graduate positions, they should hold ministers.

“Employers have had to make major adjustments. As a result, graduate jobs do not seem to be collapsing and school and university graduates’ employment has stopped, but the decline in training and employment is more worrying. About half of the placement students are reemployed, so these roles are downsized. Hurt the talent pipeline. “

The fall in many parts of the private sector was only partially offset by an average increase of 4% across the public and private sectors, as many organizations were forced to increase employment levels to deal with the coronavirus pandemic.

Information technology and engineering firms also kept graduate jobs open, but found them difficult to fill, with 42% of employers saying they had struggled to hire employees in programming and software development while 35% struggled to hire engineers.

Isherwood said the slight rise in employment of school and college graduates also showed that the employment picture for young people “was not a simple replay of what it was 10 years ago.”

The report found that the model company received 60 applications for each graduate vacancy, and 39 applications for each graduate school and college position they had.

The average typical graduate salary given by respondents was £ 29,667 while the typical salary for school or college graduates was less than £ 10,000 at £ 18,450.